Tom Ryan’s Lounge
BOOT SCOOTIN’ REVIEW
BOOTIN SCOOTIN REVIEW
Friday Night October 11, 2018
Here’s what we did
We first dropped in on a Thursday night in October. Place was practically empty, cause no band was playing. They told us there would be a band on Friday night so we decided to come back. As we walked in on Friday night, there were lots of people standing around, and the band was on break. This place is a straight saloon with no food available, but we noticed that quite a few people brought their own food in. We found a table near the dance floor so we sat down and asked for iced tea, but had to settle for water.
The band came back and started off with a two-step. We jumped on that, but found, as we started to two-step, that everyone was dancing something different and mostly in one spot. It was impossible to move around the dance floor in a counter clockwise direction, or in any direction for that matter. So, we danced most every dance in the first set and the result was the same, crowed floor, not much room to move, not much fun. If this fits your dancing style, then this is your kind of place.
The dance experience
Tom Ryan’s, in our opinion, would really be much better if the band would occasionally call out the dance (two-step, linedance, WC Swing etc) for a song before they played it. Bingo…call a two-step and everyone two-steps in the same direction. Bottom line, after an hour, we felt that it would be more fun to go to Denim & Diamonds in Mesa or Norton’s Country Corner in Queen Creek to two-step. So that’s what we did, and it was.
The seating experience.
There were lots of high drink tables with 2 or 4 stools. Makes sense that lots of people would be sitting when not dancing, right? But no, everybody at Tom Ryan’s, stands next to their stool, next to their table and clogs up the whole seating area. Making it hard to get to the dance floor and making it very hard to get on and off the dance floor. People, take a load off and sit on your stool at your table when not dancing.
Here’s what we saw
Age range: 50+
Dress Code: none that we saw. I would describe the dress as country to casual.
Floor: A medium size linoleum dance floor.
Dance Mix: Mostly two-step with an occasional waltz thrown in.
Dance Music: All Country Western, so we really liked that.
Live Music: Band Wagon was the band playing the night we were there. They were a good band.
Dancing: The dance floor was very crowded every dance and everybody was dancing to the beat of their own drum (doing there own thing) lol It was basically chaos.
Dance Lessons: there were no lessons the night we were there.
Food: No food served. Best to bring your own food.
Beverages: Full bar service bar. No iced tea. :((
Restrooms: Clean and nice.
Security: Doorman and some security inside. The parking lot was close and safe.
Parking: Lots of parking for free.
Atmosphere: Everybody seemed to be having fun, lots of laughing and drinking.
WRAP UP: This is the kind of place where you can have HonkyTonk fun, it’s just not a place that wants to maximize the dancing experience…
So Long for now…We’re off to the next venue! :))
